What to Look for in Wooden Salad Bowls

Can a wooden salad bowl last long enough to eventually become an heirloom? Chowhound home cook HungryHoya describes receiving the gift of an otherwise lovely salad bowl in the mail, but it arrived cracked! The retailer replaced it (value: $50), but the second one also showed up cracked. HungryHoya wonders: Is it worth investing in a really nice wooden salad bowl, or is it just the kind of thing that periodically needs to be replaced?

A good bowl can last indefinitely, melpy says: "My grandmothers, my mother, and myself all use our original bowl." And escondido123 has a $5 wooden bowl bought at a thrift store that's long worked beautifully for daily use, with no hint of cracking or splitting.

The type of wood and method of manufacture matter. Hard, old-growth wood is ideal, INDIANRIVERFL says, but new old-growth bowls are so rare you might have to search thrift stores. Can't find one of those? Bowls made from teak or olive wood are particularly long-lasting. As for manufacturing, lathe-turned bowls made from a single, solid piece of wood are the best choice structurally, meatn3 says, compared to bowls made from many pieces of wood joined together.